Raymond Dehn Suggests Disarming Police Officers

Minneapolis, MN – Raymond Dehn, candidate for Minneapolis mayor, is proposing police officers leave their guns in their cars, but says it’s okay for them to have nightsticks or pepper spray.

Raymond Dehn, who is also a State Representative, is running against current mayor Betsy Hodges in this fall’s election, according to Fox9.

He said, “Officers don’t need to carry guns on their person all the time…I’m not saying they don’t have access to that, just like they have access to more lethal weapons in their cars, I would believe they would still have access to their guns in their cars.”

In a statement from Friday, July 21, he said, “We must divest resources, disarm officers, and dismantle the inherent violence of our criminal justice system,” according to the StarTribune.

Dehn also said that “drastic changes” need to be made in police officer training, including “how we get officers to not react to use their gun in situations, but learning skills around de-escalation training.”

Several other candidates are also running against Mayor Hodges, but none have proposed officers leaving their guns in their cars.

Mayor Hodges is not in favor of this proposal, and said, “And if we are going to talk about changes in gun policy, we shouldn’t start with police officers who are going to be operating in a world with people who have guns.”

Dehn said that he is working on the details of his proposal, and that he wants to meet with police officers to come up with strategies to keep the community and officers safe.

In response, Lieutenant Bob Kroll, Minneapolis Police Federation President, said that Dehn’s proposal “…would not fly with any cop.” He said “I don’t think the people in Minneapolis are logically ready for anything like this. Who would ever do the job of policing again? It’s absolutely an absurd thought.”

The other mayoral candidates told Fox9 that they believe reform is needed within the police department, but taking away an officer’s firearm is “going too far”.